South Korea develops 3D technology for guided weapons

South Korea's Agency for Defense Development (ADD) announced that it has developed “real-time three-dimensional (3D) target extraction and matching technology” as part of the country's core technology plan aimed at advancing key areas of military capability.

ADD said in a media release on 8 February that the 3D target extraction and matching technology, developed by the agency between 2017 and 2021, will help in acquiring targeted data in inaccessible areas, leading to the advancement of precision-strike capability.

ADD said that it applied image processing methods to several commercially available satellite and aerial optical images to generate 3D data of the target area.

According to ADD, the technology includes a database for the restoration of precise 3D topographical and structural data of the target area, verifying the quality of the restored data, and the integrated management of related data.

ADD said that the technology can swiftly generate and verify the quality of target data for guided weapon systems (previously obtained manually), improving the quality of targeted data and work efficiency of the personnel involved.

ADD added that, in the future, it plans to boost the performance of targeted data extraction in inaccessible areas by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into developed technologies.

In recent years, South Korea has emphasised the advancement of AI and military systems and technology to enhance its defence capabilities.